November | 2015 | Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog

Monthly Archives of: November 2015

Post

Fear…

November 29, 2015

Fear. You can run from it all you want, but — if you do — it will always be there (in one form or another).

There are intelligent forms of fear and other forms of fear that are largely unintelligent. If you are walking through the woods and see a cluster of poison ivy (and have gotten severe rashes from it before) you naturally avoid it with (and “as”) a fear that is sensible and intelligent. If you are going along with others in an activity that you don’t really deem wise or wholesome, but are doing it just to “fit in” and not be rejected (as so many do with drugs, for example)… that may stem from a form of fear that is rather unintelligent and lopsided.

So many of us were taught that we are separate from our fears. When fear takes place, is it truly something that is separate from what you are? Instead of running from fears, or merely trying to manipulate them, it may be prudent to be in relationship with them… to carefully understand them and examine them (without manufactured distance and learned concepts, without fleeing). Fear often involves time; fear feeds on (and is) time. So many have fears about what the future may be (or may not be). Interestingly — though fear feeds on, involves, (and is) time — fleeing from fear involves time.

Separation from fears may go along with separation from other aspects in life… such as hopes, aspirations, dreams, speculations, and the images of others (that one deems separate from oneself). Hate often springs from unintelligent fear, for both are intrinsically bound in modes heavily involved with separation. Mental separation breeds both hate and indifference. When there is a wall of circumference around a (supposedly) separate self apart from fear, images, aspirations, and others… friction and turmoil often ensue. We can grow and wisely flower beyond the fragmentation and needless friction — internally and externally — if we perceive beyond mere separative and primitive processes.

Instead of merely just running from boredom, or fear, or loneliness, it may be prudent to remain with them (effortlessly observing) and learn from them intimately; then (out of the intimacy) if relationship with them truly changes naturally, they may flower into what transcends mediocrity, tradition, and fragmentation; then boredom and fear are no longer what they were (as part of broken, fragmentary isolation and separation).

Fire and ice. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

Double your pleasure, double your fun…it’s the right one, the Doublemint Gum!

November 27, 2015

15 comments

An antimatter universe

is a reflection of our

universe

and our universe

is a reflection of

an antimatter universe

One can isomorphically soar away

from the other

just as the other

can isomorphically soar away from one

There is always something

2 reflect upon in one

just as in one reflecting

something is always there 2

The two of us are

very far apart

2-gether

yet we are closer

than any-1

can ever imagine

Matter…Anti-matter. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Matter…Anti-matter. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

Sorrow is “secondhandedness”…

November 22, 2015

19 comments

Most minds, as we were previously saying, often, unfortunately, exclusively remain as what is second-hand. So many of us merely copy the patterns of others and — with these patterns and symbols — we function and perceive. There — as has been the case for millennia — are all kinds of politicians, teachers, religious leaders, philosophical and psychological experts who are more than willing to tell you how to live. However, with all of these so-called experts and leaders, the world remains in quite a lot of turmoil, confusion, violence, and chaos. To step out of this quagmire, however, and truly be beyond it, calls for being a mind that is not merely second-hand.

From the day we were born, each of us has been encouraged to imitate, to absorb, to utilize the symbols and patterns by which — and through which — we can function well in this world. It was drilled into you that you are separate… separate from everything else out there, separate from your thoughts. With these absorbed patterns, we can dominate and succeed. Real success, however, may not be merely clinging to these basic, rudimentary things. For instance, constantly looking via separation and concrete images/symbols might make you a wealthy businessman; but it may do little to free you and the world from sorrow and the superficial. Merely ruthlessly adhering to learned separation and absorbed symbols/images leaves the mind barren and hand-me-down.

To really look and perceive as a fresh, non-imitative, compassionate, wise human being — which so few of us have ever done profoundly — is not something that you can merely rotely learn or absorb. If it is merely something that can be absorbed or soaked up by the mind… then it is not really fresh (but, rather, second-hand). So many of us have blindly depended upon others to tell us how to live and function that — for the most part — we perceive and react via second-hand methodologies, images, symbols, and patterns. Second or third, or fourth-hand, however, (especially when seeping in separation) is not real living; and perception from that is always from the dead past. Our violence, in society, stems from the learned separation, learned space of limitation, and learned separative symbols that we have absorbed and held as consciousness. Being content to remain in (and “as”) that is great sorrow, for nothing that is second-hand (and a mere reaction), mentally, is ever what is truly fresh, pristine, and joyfully alive. No wonder so many are depressed and go to drugs.

Any method, by any teacher, or priest, or guru, to help you get beyond all the second-hand images, and patterns, and reactions… is still a process involving time and learned images and systems. Only you can look afresh at (and “as”) life without the second-hand images and patterns of others. Be very careful, however, because if that “you” is another absorbed (separate) image (or set of images) that was learned, then it too is part of the second-handedness and part of the quagmire.

To look, without the contamination of the “absorbed past” does not take time. Learning the techniques, the images, or self-images, methods, patterns, and symbols of others takes time. Being second-hand takes time. When one looks through — and “as” — a learned, separative image, one is using the fossilized past… which is intrinsically (in a big way) dead; that past is a part of conditioned/mechanical/accumulated time. Going beyond being second-hand does not depend upon procedures learned from others (or from an image of self that was additionally learned). Going beyond being second-hand is not turning into some kind of vegetable; it may be true freedom and true, highly intelligent independence (from dead imitation).

Again, to look, without the contamination of the “absorbed past” takes no time; for, regarding it, there is no process or method to copy or robotically imitate. Going beyond being second-hand is timeless, and it does not depend upon procedures learned from others (or from an image of self that additionally was learned). Recognition — from stale and rather dead images that were copied over (and “as”) time — can never come upon the new, the truly sacred and pristine. What looks from mere fragmentation, symbolism, and the dead past… cannot ever perceive the timeless, the new.

Watching (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Watching (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

Beyond Caterpillar… (a poem about psychological, not physical, ending…)

November 20, 2015

8 comments

[When one (while quite alive) is not merely recognizing things that were learned — including the images of self — then there is the possibility for that pure flame (which is beyond the musty, dusty, stored past) to flower without effort of any kind.]

If wondrous joy

thou doth employ

one’s being must sometimes let go

of its carriage

For being is becoming…

and always reaching

will never ever

capture the marriage

For psychologically ending

is real life befriending

which no wise unbeing

will ever disparage

Beyond caterpillar. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

Regarding the sacred in life…

November 15, 2015

17 comments

It is good to be in “right relationship” with everything. All too many were educated wrongly, and they continue to view the world with a psychology immersed in separation. Beyond the basics, in education, there must be an exploration into what “right and true relationship is.” Without this the mind remains rather lopsided and trapped in falsities; then all kinds of problems emerge in society… with violence, theft, deceit, indifference, drugs, and abandonment being common.

It is interesting, in a big way, about how there are a good number of people who say that they are “one with everything”… that they are “one with the whole;” yet, for most all of them, the benediction of enlightenment has never taken place. One of the fundamental reasons for this (among other things) is that even people who maintain that they are “one with everything” are still perceiving the world through concepts, symbols, and images that they have learned (and have absorbed from others). It may be that, with these conceptions and symbols, they look… and what they see is what they were taught. When they say that they are one with that… it may be that they are one with all of these myriad (learned and second-hand) images, symbols, concepts, and frameworks that others have helped to instill within (and “as”) what they are. There is nothing very profound in that.

Being “one with everything” is to be admired and appreciated. However, we have to be extremely careful with this. Because if we are merely continuing to view everything with isolated images, symbols, and concepts… being “one” with that is not sufficient; and it may not be being in “right relationship” whatsoever. Too many of us view the world through, and as, and from, symbols and learned images. One can say, as so many easily do, that everything is sacred. However, once again, we must be extremely careful with this. It could be that everything we perceive consists of recognition based on learned images, patterns, and symbols (that were taught). The truly sacred, however, may not merely be something that is within the relatively superficial realm of images, symbols, and learned patterns. Learned symbols and concepts — though very necessary for daily functioning — may not ever be in a direct relationship with what is truly sacred. That flame of timeless blessing exists beyond mere symbols and dead concepts… and shadows can never be in direct relationship with it. It is, fortunately, possible to perceive without mere learned recognition, without the shadows that such recognition exclusively consists of. Most all of us are locked in (and “as”) recognition; we see through (and “as”) second-hand symbols and patterns. We can, if we are prudent and truly perceptive in the deepest sense, perceive without mere second-hand symbols and images; then pristine, uncorrupted perception (though not necessarily sacred in itself) may open the door for what is sacred to visit. The sacred will not visit, enter, (and be in direct relationship with) what is second-hand, symbolic, stale, and rehashed. It is too fundamentally pure to be able to be in direct relationship with what is very sullied and tainted. That is one of the reasons why so few are ever directly visited by that majestic, uncorrupt, infinite energy of timelessness.

We human beings are something else! We are always thinking about and using energy (from what we taught each other). However, we are never the actual energy. That energy is timeless and (unlike the energy that we think we use) it is beyond the corruptions of man.

Eye 2 Eye. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Eye 2 Eye. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

Summer Sonnet…

November 13, 2015

11 comments

Let’s go beyond the self of space today,

Beyond the time transfixed in tradition,

Not once entrapped in space by what they say,

(Away from wars, endless strife, ambition).

Was Shakespeare right, about the ink of time?

His Eternal Summer never shall fade.

Will most, so wrong, remain apart from rhyme?

Beyond patterns lies whole, what must pervade.

So, beyond time, the timeless moves quite still.

Will clocks forget moments in stunned alarm?

The past, that’s now, en masse, must pour and spill.

Beyond all time, the timeless flows with charm.

Now what’s perceived each day, each time, each year,

Is what we are so much more close than near.

[Excerpt from the ancient Gospel of Thomas, which many top biblical scholars are now saying is closer to the historical Christ than the traditional four:

Jesus said:

If they ask you: What is the sign of your Father in you?, say to them: It is movement and rest.]

Shakespeare’s Summer. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Shakespeare’s Summer. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

Regarding Free Will…

November 8, 2015

20 comments

Do we have free will? Most of us would get quite irritated if we were told that we do not really have it. To be free is to be unhindered; it is to not be tethered to parameters that bind, blind, and limit you. To truly be free, one must have expansive intelligence beyond common boundaries. To truly be free, the cause and effect relationships that constitute one’s environment must all be understood and accounted for (without bias or flaws from one’s past education or from one’s genetic — including mental genetic — makeup). To truly be free, there must be no distortion or fragmentation in the way that one perceives.

As it is, most of us see and react from learned (and inherited) modes involving separation, fragmentation, and views that are cemented by culture and tradition. With all this limitation, we think (and feel) that we are free. So many are enslaved — in more ways than one — without ever realizing it. To perceive that you are not free may be the beginning of wisdom that brings freedom. Merely craving for freedom, however, does not bring it (i.e., psychologically). If you are conditioned — and we all are — perceive and examine that conditioning throughout the day. That conditioning is what you are; it is not merely something that can be accurately viewed with separation, from a distance. Distortion, that sees itself for what it is (without the further distortion of imagined separation, without the projection of ideals or of fanciful utopian freedom) can — through clarity and understanding from direct relationship — change and transform. Distortion, however, that clings to learned modes of internal (and external) separation and false images of freedom (which are unreal)… likely will remain in (and “as”) the conditioning that it is.

Intelligence that (without mere separation and pre-conceived ideals) perceives the conditioning and distortion that is what it is… may transform beyond that conditioning and distortion. Distortion that merely looks (with learned separation) from that distortion and thinks that it is free… mostly remains in (and “as”) distortion. By the way… harming another organism intentionally and using the excuse that one has no free will (because of being conditioned) is a cop-out; it’s a song and dance. We are all, whether conditioned or not, responsible. We can respond either from (that spaceless place of) direct relationship and compassion (beyond mere division) and intelligent caring (beyond learned and absorbed boundaries)… or from cold indifference, learned separation, and hatred. (Separation and friction that is internal — in the brain — can express and project itself outwardly, as conflict and hatred.) We can go beyond crude, unrefined patterns. We are all capable of growing.

Ant Domain. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

There was…

November 6, 2015

21 comments

There was a man

so wise

that every time he

walked

he always limped

and the whole universe limped too

There was a woman

so whole

that every time she

blinked

the skies always settled

and the churning seas would settle too

There was a past perfect

so present

that every time it

moved

it always returned

and the bygone future returned too

There was a flower

so beautiful

that every time it

unfurled

it always opened

and the blossoming of understanding would open too

Explosion in Pink. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Explosion in Pink. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Post

The Curtain lies… between here and there…

November 1, 2015

19 comments

What is distance? There is distance between you and another living organism. There is distance between yesterday and today. There is distance between one cloud in the sky and another. However, is there really separation? There is, for instance, distance between your index finger and your ring finger. However, is your index finger really something separate from your ring finger? When I was very young, I used to be an avid fisherman… until I realized that the distance of the fishing line did not contribute to any separation whatsoever. Supposedly separate countries (that are divided up upon this globe), by man-made demarcations, might not be in such friction with each other if they deeply saw the interconnection involving all. Separate islands, for example, may seem very separate until one probes deeper and perceives how (under the water surface) they actually connect and are one.

Many people were taught that they control their thoughts from a distance (or from something separate). However, the actuality of the matter is that there is no distance (or even separation) between the thinker and the thoughts (if the thinker is part of thought — is a protrusion of thought — which it is). How we perceive is often (or usually) dictated by (and shaped by) thought. Many perceive — both internally and (therefore) externally — with a learned separation that is fragmentary, erroneous, self-oriented, and rather robotic. (We are not talking about foolishly blending in and walking into walls here; we are discussing about going beyond inelegant, unevolved perceptions.) Many of us “think” that we are very modern and sophisticated; but the fact may be that we are still very barbarous, deeply primitive, and crude (with gross separation and archaic division drilled into our psyches). Look, for instance, (and read the current news) at what humans are doing in the world. We can do better.

Soldier Beetles patrolling the area. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: